1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cellular mobile communication systems, and specifically to a technique for meeting an increased demand for cellular communications by splitting a cell-site area. More specifically, the present invention relates to an intra-cell handover technique which is particularly suited for CDMA (code division multiple access) communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cellular mobile communication systems, a cell-site area is often split into a plurality of small areas or microcells to meet an increasing number of phone calls and. When a communicating mobile station is crossing the boundary of adjacent microcells, an intra-cell handover is necessary if the call is to be maintained. Since the handover involves detection of mobile-transmitted signals from several microcells, determination of their relative strengths and selective establishment of radio links according to the relative strengths, the circuits, wirings and algorithm required are very complex to implement.